1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a controller-including wiring apparatus for an automotive vehicle and more specifically to a junction structure of the controller-including wiring apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a junction block has been used for wiring an automotive vehicle. The junction block includes bus bar circuit boards connected to a wire harness as branch circuits, and some electric parts (e.g. fuse, relay, etc.) arranged on the board.
However, recently, there exists a tendency that the number of electric devices mounted on a vehicle increases more and more to improve safety and riding confortability of the vehicle, so that the number of control circuits also increase year by year. In addition, since the kinds and the number of the electric and electronic devices required for an automotive vehicle are different according to vehicle models or vehicle grades, it is necessary to prepare a great number of junction blocks having different circuit configurations.
To overcome the above-mentioned problems, the junction block is usually separated into two, wiring (harness branch connecting circuits, a power supply circuit, etc.) and controller, circuits, and these two circuits are removably coupled with each other. Therefore, only the controller circuit can be replaced with another controller circuit according to the number and the kinds of the electric devices.
FIG. 1 shows an example of prior-art controller-including wiring apparatus.
In the drawing, the controller unit CONT includes a casing 101, a printed circuit board 102, two input and output connectors 103A and 103B, and a junction block connector 104. On the printed circuit board 102, an electromagnetic relay 105, electronic parts 106 such as resistors, capacitors, LSI, etc. are arranged. This controller unit CONT is connected to a junction block JB via the junction block connector 104, and to an external wire harness via the two input and output connectors 103A and 103B. Terminals of these connectors 103A, 103B and 104 are all connected directly to the printed circuit board 102.
In the conventional controller unit CONT, however, since the terminals of the connectors 103A and 103B to be connected to an external wire harness project directly from the printed circuit board 102, when connected to the external wire harness, a stress is readily applied to the printed circuit board 102. Therefore, there exists a problem in that copper foil formed on the printed circuit board 102 is easily peeled off and therefore the reliability of the controller unit CONT is poor. In addition, in usual, several connectors (not shown) to be coupled to the junction block and the wire harness are arranged separately on the casing 101 of the controller unit CONT, it takes much time to connect the controller unit CONT to the wire harness and the junction block JB, in wire harness production processes or vehicle assembly processes, with increasing number of the connectors to be coupled to the controller unit CONT, thus resulting in an increase in the manufacturing cost.